


Red Paladin, Pilot, Friend, Orphan, Human, Galra?

by Awesome_Sauce432



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura is not happy, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra Keith, Gen, Keith Tells Everyone He Is Galra, Keith centric, Missing Scene, Most of them are pretty accepting, Shiro is Protective and Supportive, and confused, keith pov, season 2 episode 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 22:08:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9404957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesome_Sauce432/pseuds/Awesome_Sauce432
Summary: After realising his true and confusing heritage, Keith realises that he has to tell the others. With Shiro by his side, he makes the decision to tell them sooner rather than later.AKA: The scene that wasn't shown in Season 2 for some reason.





	

Keith was silent in the cockpit of the Red Lion, flying back to the Castleship. His head rang and his body ached, thoughts and feelings buzzing through his mind, demanding attention. 

His knife was a Galran knife. He was Galran. He’s suspected it, but had always hoped it would turn out that it wasn’t true. That there was another explanation. But it all made sense. His knife, his missing family. The realisation had hit him like a rock. 

You fight like a Galra, indeed. Keith wondered distantly if Zarkon had known, if he had been able to sense Galran blood inside of him. 

“-hiro? Keith? What’s going on?” Allura’s voice came through over the comms. “What happened in there?”

“It’s a long story. But we’re ok, we’re heading back now. The Blade of Marmora agreed to ally with us.” Shiro said. Keith could feel his gaze on him, silently asking the question. Do we tell them?

It was a small comfort that Keith was confident Shiro wouldn’t blurt it out to everyone. But Keith didn’t know how they were going to explain what happened without mentioning his knife, and thus, what he had learned. But what would they say? What would they think?

“It seemed like the Red Lion had begun to attack them! What happened to make them decide to ally with us?” Now Coran was talking, and Keith could hear the others begin to ask questions too. 

“We’ll explain everything once we get back. We’re nearly there.” Keith said, his voice low. Shiro didn’t say anything in response. It was Keith’s choice. He piloted the Red Lion into its hangar, and once both of them were out of the Lion, Shiro flicked off his comms, stopping the others from listening in to what he was saying.

“Keith... are you alright?” Shiro’s voice was concerned and soft. He almost sounded hesitant. Keith nodded, already beginning to muster up all of his courage.

“I’ll be fine. I’ve got to tell them.” He said. If he tried to put it off, the worse it would be. He remembered when Pidge had revealed that she was a girl to everyone. That had gone well, and it was obvious that Pidge had felt a lot better afterwards. But this was different. Keith was a part of the enemy. Part of his blood had come from those that had tried to destroy them multiple times. Had tortured Shiro for a year. Had nearly killed all of them at some point. Had destroyed Altea, had left Allura and Coran the last of their people. Had captured Pidge’s family, nearly killed the Balmera and Shay’s people. The list of atrocities the Galra had committed seemed neverending. 

He felt sick to his stomach just thinking about being connected to that in any way. 

“Keith?” Shiro spoke again, startling Keith out of his thoughts. 

“I-Let’s go. Get this over and done with.” His voice sounded small, though not nervous. He turned beginning to walk out of the hangar.

“Right behind you.” Shiro said. It was comforting. At least Shiro’s got my back, Keith thought. If Shiro didn’t seem to mind... perhaps the others would react the same way.

He kept that hopeful thought in his head the entire way to the main bridge, where he and Shiro were promptly surrounded by the others, all calling out questions and demanding to know what had happened. For a few moments it was pandemonium, until finally Allura silenced them.

“Alright, let’s just let Shiro and Keith explain.” She said, sounding almost exasperated. Keith silently wished Allura had let the madness continue, if only to delay the inevitable for just a little longer. Behind him, he felt Shiro take the tiniest step closer, offering his strong, steady support. He took a breath.

“The Blade of Marmora agreed to ally with us. They’re being cautious, but they trust us now. I think.” Keith began, trying to keep his voice strong. Even so, he did wonder how much the rebel group did trust them. 

“But the Red Lion-“ Lance began, confusion plain upon this face. Inwardly, Keith grimaced. Here we go, he thought.

“She began to attack because of me. They were able to overlook it, there wasn’t a lot of damage...” Now Keith knew he had simply brought up more questions. He quickly pulled out his knife. The Galran knife.

“What does your knife have to do with it?” Hunk asked, peering a little closer to examine it.

“Weren’t you both supposed to come unarmed?” Pidge asked, frowning. 

“Yes... But I didn’t. I brought the knife, and they found it and tried to confiscate it from me.” Keith said.

“But why did you take the knife with you? You could have compromised the mission.” Allura said, looking thoughtful. 

“You’d think if anything was confiscated, it would be Shiro’s arm.” Lance said, folding his arms together and narrowing his eyes at Keith’s knife. Shiro, for his part, did not look amused. “Unless this is some sort of super knife.”

“Actually...” Keith began. Lance’s mouth dropped open, and quickly began to argue that he had not been serious. Keith ignored him. “It’s a Galran knife.”

“What?” Now everyone looked confused. But it was Coran who had spoken. “Where did you get a Galran knife?”

“Didn’t you have that knife while we were still on Earth? Did you find it in the desert while you were looking for the Blue Lion?” Pidge asked, her eyes narrowed.

“No, I’ve had it all my life. For as long as I can remember. I-“ He was interrupted by the others beginning to throw questions at him faster than he could handle once again. This time it was Shiro who silenced them.

“Let him finish. Then it will make sense.” He said. Everyone was quiet immediately, and Keith shot Shiro a thankful glance. His stomach was turning. The moment of truth was arriving. As far as he could tell, no one had connected the dots yet. Coran looked very thoughtful, while Allura looked confused. Lance, Hunk and Pidge were extremely confused. 

“The Blade of Marmora thought I had stolen the knife. So to prove that it was mine, they put me through these trials. I had to fight them. First it was one on one, then two on one, then three, and so on. It... wasn’t fun.” Keith said, as his body seemed to send an aching wave of dull pain through him as if to remind him that he was injured. He neglected to mention that he had seen Shiro. A fake Shiro. The others didn’t need to know that.

“It was around about then when Red started attacking. She knew I was hurt. But then... I saw a vision. Of my dad.” There were a few gasps. Keith glanced up at Shiro. He hadn’t told him about that. But while Shiro looked surprised, he still stood behind him, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“He offered to tell me everything. About my past, my family, this knife... And I said no.” It pained him just saying it. What would have happened if he had said yes? Would he still be here?

“You said no?” Lance sounded incredulous, like he couldn’t believe it.

“But... your family...” Pidge was frowning, but in the way she did when she was trying to solve a tough problem. Keith shook his head slightly, looking down at the knife. The faintly glowing symbol on its handle.

“I said no, because while my dad was offering me all of that, Zarkon was attacking. I chose to leave, and fight. Because being a Paladin of Voltron is more important than who my parents were...” His voice trailed off. 

“So you have no idea?” Hunk asked, looking like he pitied Keith a great deal. The idea of that stung, but Keith ignored it for now. He took a deep breath.

“No. After I came out of the vision, I offered to give up the knife so that the Blade of Marmora would ally with us. But instead, I awoke it. And apparently... the only way that’s possible is if I have Galran blood.”

There was a moment of complete silence. Everyone simply stared at him. Pidge had gone as pale a blank piece of paper, though whether that was from shock or surprise or something else was unclear. Allura and Coran had completely frozen, except for their eyes flitting between looking at him and looking at each other. Hunk’s mouth was opening and closing, as if he were trying to say something but was unable to find the words. Lance looked similar to how he had when Pidge had revealed that she was a girl. Completely dumbfounded. Shiro stood steady behind Keith, his hand a comforting anchor to reality. For that one, silent moment, Keith felt like Schrödinger’s Cat, neither dead nor alive. Only in this case, he was neither accepted nor rejected. 

But ultimately, it was Lance who recovered first.

“But you’re not purple!” He said. Keith could only shrug weakly.

“When I saw my dad in the vision... he looked human. Maybe I’m only half Galra.” He said, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Maybe he was even less than half Galra. A quarter, an eighth... the higher the number, the better. Maybe the knife would still work even if he were only one thousandth Galra. That idea was slightly comforting.

“Woah... That-this-“ Hunk stammered, before quickly going quiet.

“This just brings up a million questions! It means Galra have been on Earth before! Or humans have been in space far enough to find Galra!” Pidge said, looking up and down Keith.

“Well... this is... some interesting news...” Coran said, stroking his mustache and looking troubled.

“Yeah... but... I’m still me.” Keith shifted uncomfortably on his feet. 

“You’re not going to get all fuzzy on us, will you?” Lance said. 

“Um, no.” Keith said indignantly, though the comment was a far cry from the angry rejection that he had been dreading. 

“No matter what, Keith is still one of us. It’s because of him that the Blade of Marmora decided to ally with us.” Shiro said. Thank goodness for Shiro, Keith thought.

“Thanks.” He said, finally looking up from the floor. 

“Well... if you hadn’t taken the knife, perhaps it might have gone more smoothly.” Allura said, her voice uncomfortably cold. It sent chills down Keith’s spine, and he looked up at her. The others all quietened, glancing between her and Keith.

“There’s nothing we can do about that now. What matters is that the Blade of Marmora agreed to ally with us.” Shiro said, removing his hand from Keith’s shoulder and stepping forward. Allura’s eyes narrowed and she looked away, taking a few steps away from the group. Keith looked down at the floor. This was more along the reaction he had feared and half-expected.

“Keith-“ Coran began to speak.

“No, I get it. I’d hate me too.” His voice was quiet. Coran gave him a look filled with indescribable emotion, before turning and following Allura, putting a hand around her shoulder and whispering something to her. 

“We don’t hate you, Keith.” Shiro said.

“Yeah. I mean, you didn’t know.” Hunk said, though he looked nervous, and Keith didn’t fail to notice the small area of space between him and the others, like a protective wall. The only one who bridged the space was Shiro. If Shiro wasn’t there, Keith had no idea what he would do. 

“It’s not like you’re fighting for Zarkon.” Pidge said. By now she looked far more curious than anything, leaning in carefully and looking at him over her glasses. Keith had the sinking feeling that soon enough she would be hounding him in order to satisfy her questions on how Galra/human hybrids worked. But he could probably deal with that. Hopefully. 

“I wonder if you’ll suddenly just... poof... someday. Maybe once you hit like, twenty you’ll just...” Lance said, making a small gesture with his hands. “Get all fuzzy.” 

“I don’t think that’ll happen, Lance.” Shiro said, his face a mixture of indignation and confusion. 

“If he hasn’t shown any Galra traits yet, I doubt they’ll just suddenly show up now. It’s actually... rather strange. Maybe Galran traits are recessive.” Pidge said, now fully in questioning mode.

“Maybe you’re only like... a little Galran.” Hunk said. 

While Hunk, Lance and Pidge debated on the possible genetics of Galra hybrids, Keith stood silently. He didn’t know how to react. Their reactions had been so varied, all of his feelings were jumbled and fuzzy. But at least most of them didn’t seem to mind. He was still Keith, their friend and Paladin of Voltron, before he was Keith, the Galra. 

But Allura... Did she hate him now? Keith wouldn’t blame her. If he were in her position, he might feel the same way. She had lost nearly everything, all thanks to the Galra. To learn that one of the last hopes for the galaxy, one of the Paladins of Voltron, was one of them... Keith wouldn’t have been surprised if they had all hated him. Demanded he leave. 

He felt a strong, comforting hand on his shoulder. It was Shiro again.

“She’ll come around. She just needs time.” He said, his voice low so that the others couldn’t hear. Keith nodded, looking down. 

“I hope so...” His voice trailed off. 

“Don’t lose sight of what’s important.” Shiro said. Once again, Keith nodded. It was pointless to worry about his past, his family. They still had to defeat Zarkon. Still, it didn’t stop him from worrying, and wondering. 

Instead of questions being answered, even more questions had been raised instead. He glanced up at Coran and Allura, who were faced away, whispering frantically to each other. Then he looked Shiro, who still stood steady, a comforting pillar of support. Finally, he looked at Lance, Hunk and Pidge, who were now arguing over whether or not Keith’s future children or grandchildren would have enough Galran blood to awaken the knife. 

Once Zarkon was defeated, he decided, he was going to find out the truth. Perhaps the Blade of Marmora would be able to help. He was going to find out about his father, his mother. He had to find out. Perhaps then he would understand.

**Author's Note:**

> I, like many people, were very confused when we were not show Keith telling everyone he was Galra. Rather, everyone just... knew. It was odd,so I decided to have a crack at how the scene went, like many others probably will. I hope you enjoy.


End file.
